Pavlos Kyrou

Pavlos Kyrou was a Slavophone Greek revolutionary who participated in the Ilinden Uprising with the IMRO and the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.

Early life Kyrou was born in the 1860s in Zelovo (renamed Antartiko in 1927) of Florina. He graduated from the local Greek school of his hometown and began to join armed bands where in 1881, he was involved in the kidnapping of the Turkish prefect of Florina.

Macedonian Struggle Following a long trip to Athens, Kyrou returned to Macedonia to restart his armed activities along with Kottas, fighting with the Bulgarian Komitadjis against the Ottoman authorities. In 1903-04 he travelled to Athens with Kottas to recruit volunteers for the struggle.

Legacy He ranks among the heroes of the Macedonian Struggle in Greece.

His son, Lazaros, also became a chieftain and continued the fight following his father's death.

There is a bust and memorial to him in his birth place of Antartiko.

In Bulgaria he is regarded as a turncoat Bulgarian, a renegade from the IMRO.